Wednesday, March 28, 2012

VISITING THE GANDHI BHOOMI

VISITING THE GANDHI BHOOMI
It has been my long-cherished desire to visit the home state of the Mahatma and the the celebrated 'Modi Land' of India. The wish came true finally on the 11th March 2012 when I took up the 'Panchdwaraka Yathra' through Sree Travels.
The eight-odd day trip to Gujarat and Rajasthan by flight from Chennai to Ahmedabad and back, train journey from Ahmedabad to Udaipur and back and bus journey to the other places of the tour, cost around Rs.18,000/- per person.
The majority of the pilgrims travelled to Ahmedabad by Navjeevan Express from Chennai and about a dozen of us were to join them by flight at Ahmedabad.The train party had left Chennai on the mornong of 10th March 2012.We left Chennai at about 12 noon by Spice jet flight and landed at Ahmedabad Sardar Patel Airport at 2pm. We were accommodated at Hotel Serena,Lal Darwaza,Ahmedabad. Sumptuous Gujarati vegetarian food was available nearby. Since the train party was expected to arrive only by evening and our trip to Dwaraka was to start only the next morning,we, six of the flight passengers, decided to engage a taxi for local sight-seeing to places not covered by Sree Travels.
A striking feature of Ahmedabad ( the Gujaratis call it 'AMDAVAD') is the cleanliness of the streets and the jam-free, smooth flowing traffic there. Gujarat is easily the envy of every visitor from Tamilnadu as it is a 'power-surplus' state. It, in fact, lends power to our power-hungry state!We visited the Vaishno Devi Mandir on the outskirts of the city first. It is built as a replica of the Vaishno Devi Mandir at Jammu with all its crawling-tunnels and the other celebrated paraphernalia.The only disturbing feature during all our temple-visits was the harrowing security-checks and frisking and the banning of leather goods,mobiles,camera etc. All this is understandable after the carnage staged by Pakistani terrorists at Akshardam,Ahmedabad a decade back. Once bitten makes us 'for-ever' shy! The next visit was to the famous ISCON temple and the Jagannath mandir, both of which were thronging with pious devotees chanting bhajans and keertans.
Our next visit was to the famous "Kankaria Lake",that acknowledges the sun set there.This polygonal lake,built by Sultan Qutub-ud-din in 1451, has an island garden called 'Nagina Wadi'. It is believed to be the favourite spot of Emperor Jehangir and Queen Noor Jehan. Since it was a Sunday evening,the place was bustling with men,women and children in all hues and speaking a variety of languages. Believe me, for all this crowd,there was not not even an iota of garbage anywhere! Clealiness is an in-thing for the Gujaratis! I couldn't help recalling the mountains of garbage left after the "Kaanum Pongal ' Day festival in Chennai and elsewhere in Tamilnadu.
Early next morning, we began our long journey by Bus to Dwaraka, about 435 kms away, towards the Western tip of the country. We passed through the cities of Rajkot and Jamnagar before reaching Gomti Dwaraka in the evening. We checked into Hotel Meera there,had a good darshan of Lord Dwarakadeesh with the help of a local guide. Legend has it that after the killing of Kamsa,his father-in-law waged continuous war against Mathura to avenge his son-in-law's death,though he could not defeat Mathura. Lord Krishna wanted to free the people of Mathura and the nandhas from such cruel wars and so he decided to shift his capital from Mathura. He chose the Western tip of the country and founded the city of Dwaraka with the help of Vishwa karma and settled down there. Krishna hated wars and tried his best to avoid them and prevent loss of lives. "Rann" in Hindi/Gujarati refers to the battle field and "chod" refers to "renouncing" and so the people here refer to Lord Krishna as "RANN CHOD ROYJI". We had a holy dip at the Gomti Sangam near the temple and had a second darshan of the Lord next day.
The visit on the next day was to the 'Rukmani temple' on the west towards the port town of OKHA in Jamnagar district,Gujarat. From there we proceeded towards "Bhet Dwaraka",in the Arabian Sea, by boat to an island ('bhet') called Bhet Dwaraka,believed to be the residence of Lord krishna. It is also believed that Lord Krishna and his class mate Sudama met in this palace('bhet' also means 'meet').On our return journey we visited Gopi Talav and worshipped the famous Jyotir lingam at Nageshwar.We continued our journey towards south east and visited the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi at Porbandhar.There is a museum functioning at the ancestral home of the Bapu. Near by is the place called Sudama Dwaraka,where Krishna's friend lived. It is also referred to as "Sudama Dwaraka". We visited the "Mool Dwaraka", the place visited first by Krishna before establishing the city of Dwaraka. After travelling for about 225 kms from Dwaraka,we reached the city of Veraval, near the famous Gir forest of Gujarat and checked into Hotel Satkar for night stay.
The first visit on the next day was to "Bhal ka teerth",a place where Krishna was last seen. It is believed that here, Krishna was shot on his toe by a hunter by mistake(as per a curse he brought on himself during Ramavatar when he shot Vaali). That brought an end to Krishnavatar and he proceeded to Vaikunta from here.There is beautiful temple here depicting this legend. Our next target was towards the historical city of the Somnath. There is a place where the three rivers Hiranya, Kapila and Saraswathi meet and it is called Triveni Sangam near Somnath.A number of Shiva temples are situated near the Triveni Sangam.
The most interesting visit of the day was to the historical Somnath Temple near the sangam. This is one of the twelve 'jyotirlingams' in India. The temple offers a spectacular view of the Arabian sea adjoinig the temple and its excellent marble architecure, Gold-plated entrances and arches with intrinsic carvings inside the temple are a feast to the eyes. No wonder the notorious conquerer Mohmud Gazni plundered the temple so many times and desecrated the idols besides killing thousands of 'infedels' in the process. Thousands of Hindus defending the temple were captured and sold as slaves in Afganistan and elsewhere. It is said that fragments of the broken Jyotirlingam were used as stepping stones in the mosques there.The entire temple at Somanath was razed by Mohmud Gazni and later by Mohmud Ghauri and a mosque was built in that place. The present temple was rebuilt in a nearby place later. We do not understand why such mindless atrocities on the defenceless people in the name of religion, are eulogised by the people of Pakistan. Pakistan,as we know,have named one of their latest missiles after the infamous "Ghauri"!
Then began our long journey by road back to Ahmedabad,nearly 400 kms away, halting here and there for lunch,snacks etc. We reached Ahmedabad railway station in time to catch the Udaipur Express at 11 pm for a comfortable journey by the metre-gauge train through the Aravalli range the to Udaipur city. Nights in this part of the country were very chilly even during the month of March. On reaching Udaipur city we checked into hotel Tulsi Palace.
"Fateh Sagar". This was the first place we visited the next day at Udaipur.This artificial lake considered as the 'pride of Udaipur' was built in 1678 by Maharana of Udaipur. A boat-ride in the lake was worth its weight in gold! After the women pilgrims in our group enjoyed shopping in the saree cum jewellery museum nearby,we visited the famous "City Palace" at Udaipur.
The city palace,located in the East bank of Lake Pichola,was built by Maharana Udaisingh in 1559 as the capital of the Sisodia Rajput clan.Situated on a hillock,it is an epitome of the fusion of Rajasthani and Moghul architectural styles. It is mainly a granite and marble structure but the interiors are full of delicate mirror works,marble carvings,murals,wall-paintings,silver works and coloured glass works. It presents a panoramic view of the city and the lake nearby. This palace shot into international fame after the James Bond movie "Octopussy' which was shot here.Now Udaipur has come to be known as "The Venice of the East".
Early next morning saw us proceeding towards "Sreenath Dwaraka". On the way we visitd the historical,1300 year-old Eklingi temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. Located in a place called 'Kailashpuri' 22kms north of Udaipur in Rajasthan,it was built in 734 A.D by Mewar rulers. Under the pyramidal roof one can find three forms of the Nandhi,made of Silver,Brass and black marble. The shivalinga itself is a four-faced idol of Eklingi. The East-facing side is believed to be Surya,the West-facing is Brahma,the north-facing is Vishnu and south-facing is believed to be the Rudra.
Our next destination,the famous Nathdwara was about 48 kms north of Udaipur. The temple of Shrinathji, believed to be built in the 17th century, is also called "Shrinathji Ki Haveli" as it houses a store room for milk,a room for betel, for sugar and sweetmeats, flowers, jewellery, a charriot,a functional kitchen,treasury, a stable a drawing room and a gold and silver grinding wheel. When the idol of Shrinathji was being brought from the north to escape from the atrocities of Aurangazeb ,it is believed that the charriot got stuck in this place and the lord established the temple here by himself. We could see the devotees offering milk and vegetables to the lord in plenty. In fact we found a vegetable market functioning inside the temple for this very purpose! Our next visit was to the famous Kangroli temple nearby. This temple,believed to be built in 1676 A.D,is also dedicated to Lord Dwarakadeesh and the idol is believed to have been brought from Mathura. Concluding our fifth day's programme at Udaipur, we proceeded straight to Udaipur railway station to catch our train back to Ahmedabad at 7-30 pm.

Dakor Dwaraka was the next item on our agenda for Saturday(17th March 2012). This temple is situated at about 43 kms north-east of Ahmedabad near the bank of Gomti river. The temple is dedicated to Lord Krishna known as "Ranchhodraiji"( meaning 'one who left the battle field'). It is believed to have been built during 1772 A.D. The idol of Ranchhodraiji is adorned with gold and silver ornaments, precious jewels and expensive clothes and is mounted on an exclusively carved throne. The worship at Dakor Dwaraka was indeed a fitting finale to our Panchadwaraka Yathra though a few more items of visit still remained.
In the afternoon we visited the famous Akshardham temple at Ahmedabad,going through all its security drills. This temple built by the Gandhinagar Akshardham Sanstha in 1992, combines devotion,art,architecture,education,exhibition and research all under one roof. It gained international attention after the terrorist attack in September 2002 when two heavily armed terrorists created havoc there killing 29 devotees and three police commandos besides injuring about 80 persons. The rest of the day was left free for the much-awaited shopping spree and the pilgrims ensured that they wouldn't carry back all the cash they brought with them for the trip!
The bulk of the pilgrims returned to Chennai by the next morning's Navjeevan Express. That again gave some of us adequate time to plan yet another private local trip to other places in Ahmedabad(our Chennai flight was only at 3 pm that day). We enjoyed visiting a Jain Temple, the step-well at Adalaj, the Sabarmati Ashram, the Trimandir, Sardar Vallabhai Patel memorial and the Bhimnath Mahadev -Gayathri Shaktipeeth at Ahmedabad. The Spicejet flight at 3-10 pm brought us safely back to Chennai at 5-30 pm, a day ahead of the other members of the pilgrimage!
The visit to the 'Gandhi Bhoomi' was thus a rewarding experience to be cherished for a long long time!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

"Accessing the inaccessible"
'Thirumangai Alwar',the last of the twelve Vaishnavaite saint poets, has sung in praise of a number of Vishnu shrines in India and in Nepal.Of all the Vishnu temples
he visited,he refers to a particular "divya desam" or shrine as "sendru kandarku ariya koil singavel kundramey"(the most inaccessible among the divya desams is the Ahobila Kshetram). By some good fortune,I had the opportunity to visit this inaccessible shrine and worship Sh Ahobila Narasimhar in his nine different forms popularly known as 'nava narasimhars'.
Ahobila kshetram is referred to as "thiruchingavel kundram" by Thirumangai Alwar. It is situated at about 110 kms away from Cudappa railway station in the Chennai-Mumbai train route in Andhra Pradesh.We,a party of about 32 pilgrims and 7 kitchen staff besides the tour organiser,started from Triplicane on the 23rd January at about 5pm by a tourist bus.After a brief halt at Kakalur Anjaneya swamy temple near Thiruvallur for worship and dinner,we continued our journey through the night passing through Renigunta and other places in AP.We reached Ahobilam (Lower Ahobilam) at 5.30 am and put up at the Ahobilam Mutt guest house.The first visit in the morning was to the Lakshmi Narasimhar temple near the Ahobila Mutt.This is very beautiful with the stone art strucures of the local tradition.This shrine though not a divye desam,is bound to inspire every pilgrim with its tranquility and artistic beauty. After breakfast,we drove by bus into the Reserve Forest area where most of the nine shrines are situated.Our first halt was the the KARANCHA NARASIMHAR,which is about 12 kms from Ahobila Mutt.Karancha refers to a particular tree(Punga maram) under which Lord Narasimha gave Darshan to Hanuman at this point of the hill.We continued our drive for another 2kms to reach the foot of the hill beyond which one has to trek or engage a 'doli' to reach the other shrines in the hill.We visited the first abode in the hill namely the AHOBILA NARASIMHAR SHRINE which is the actual divya desam sung by Thirumangai Alwar and worshipped Lord Prahlatha Varadhar and Lakshmi Narasimhan. The actual trek starts now through steps in some places and through pebbles and stones in other places.VARAHA NARASIMHAR shrine engraved in a huge rock was the next halt on the hill where we worshipped the Lord in the form of a pig to save his bhaktas from evil forces.On the way to Varaha Narasimha swamy sannathy,we come across picturesque mountain sceneries including a breath-taking view of the "Bhavanasini waterfalls".From here the trek becomes treacherous and unkind to the pilgrims who have to exercise utmost care to balance themselves with the stick provided for the purpose while negotiating through boulders,pebbles,streams and steep and narrow steps.
JWALA NARASIMHAR shrine is situated at about 5 kms from Varaha Narasimhar sannathy,on a steep rock with very narrow steps which at one stage you negotiate only by holding on to the chains fixed on the rock surface.This shrine presents Lord Narasimha in his fiercest and most furious form with the flame (jwala) of his fury being directed aginst Hiranya Kashyap,the tormentor of His disciple Prahladha.We saw the Lord in the squatting yoga pose with his finger nails piercing open the guts of Hiranya.One can see the fire in the Lord's furious face.On an adjacent pedestal we could see the Lord chasing a frightened and fleeing Hiranya.Thirumangai Alwar says that Brahma and Maheswara found that the whole horizon was turned fiery red with the fury of the Lord during the annihilation of Hiranya .(Theytha theeyal vin sivakkum singavel kundramay!)
After worshipping Jwala narasimhar we continued with the trek through the tortuous terrain to climb another 2 kms into the forest and rocks to reach the MALOLA NARASIMHAR shrine where we performed 'thirumanjanam'and 'thiruvaradhanam' to the Lord.We came to know that the 'uthsava moorthi' of Malola narasimhar is with the Ahobila Mutt Jeer Azhagiyasinger for his daily thiruvaradhanam as per the Lord's desire.It was heartening to note that even at such an inaccessible place like the Malola narasimhar sannadhi, the Ahobila Mutt has made arrangements for drinking water and toilet facilities.Though Jwala and Malola are toughest to reach among other shrines,we heard of a certain "Ugrasthambam"on top of a very steep rock where a pillar from which the Lord emerged is still there.But reaching this spot was just unthinkable because of the inaccessible terrain! It is therefore no wonder that Thirumangai Alwar refers to Ahobilam as " accessible to no one other than Gods"( Dheiyvamallal sellavonnatha singavel kundramey.) !
We proceeded then to the next shrine namely CHATRAVADA NARASIMHAR which is at about 20 kms back into lower Ahobilam outside the Reserve Forest Area. And from here we continued our drive to YOGANANDA NARASIMHAR shrine which is nearby on the way back to Lower Ahobilam. There are two shrines here namely the "Bala yogananda Narasimhar" and the "Yogananda Narasimhar" sannathies. After completing our worship at the seventh shrine for the day,we returned to the guest house for a well-deserved rest and recuperation.
On the next day our first destination was the PAVANA NARASIMHAR shrine which is situated deep inside the Reserve Forest Area accessible only by jeep through a back-breaking, rough ride through the virgin jungle.The legend has it that Mahalakshmi thayar took birth in this hill as a huntress by name "Chenchu Lakshmi" and the Lord took the form of a hunter to marry Chenchu lakshmi. At this shrine the Lord poses as a hunter with the bow and arrows and other paraphernalia.Even today,the uthsavam in this shrine is performed as per the hunter-family traditions with animal sacrifice etc. Returning from Pavana Narasimhar shrine,we drove again through a similar jungle terrain to climb about 130 steps to reach BHARGAVA NARASIMHAR shrine on top of a small hillock inside the reserve forest. This shrine is dedicated to the sun-god.In fact all the nine Narasimhas correspond to the nine planets of the solar system,it is believed.Thus ended our quest to worship the nine narasimhas of the Ahobila Kshetram,aptly described as 'inaccessible' (Sendru kandarkariya koil singavel kundramey) by Thirumangai Alwar.
To cap all our efforts,the next day we had the good fortune of worshipping the uthsava moorthies of Narasimhas during their visit to a nearby village on a uthsavam,thus concuding our mission. We then had a long drive to Manthralayam on the banks of River Thunga Bhadra, visiting 'Mahanandi temple' on the way.The next day was 'thursday', very auspicious day to 'Raghavendra Swamy'. We had a holy bath in the river Thunga Bhadra and worshipped Lord Raghavendra Swamy.River Thunga Bhadra was almost dry with only some pockets of water found here and there that too not what you can call 'clean' but that doesn't matter before one's faith.Our worsip at Manthralayam was indeed a fitting finale to our 3-day pilgrimage and our endeavour to "access the inaccessible".
"Shrimathe Ramanujaya Namaha."C:\Users\thambu\Pictures\Ahobilam Yathra Jan 2012\DSC06328.JPG